


In Respect of a Fine Workman

by Katherine



Category: Dolittle (2020)
Genre: Eavesdropping, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-31
Updated: 2020-05-31
Packaged: 2021-03-03 02:14:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 336
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24477046
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Katherine/pseuds/Katherine
Summary: "Won't your parents be worried about you running off to be an apprentice?" John asked the boy.
Kudos: 52





	In Respect of a Fine Workman

Poly kept as still as a statue of a bird in the ship's small crows-nest, not that humans were in the habit of often looking up. But she sensed a private conversation on the deck and would not be caught eavesdropping.

"Won't your parents be worried about you running off to be an apprentice?" John asked the boy, in a tone that he was trying to keep gentle but, if Poly was any judge, which she was after her years of voyaging and living with John and Lily Dolittle, was very much out of practice at. "Sneaking off, I might add."

"No," the boy answered, low. "They're gone." Dead, then, in the same peculiarly human euphemism that John used about Lily.

Kevin the squirrel joined Poly from the rigging, his over-elegant ear tufts twitching as he too listened to what the boy was telling John.

"My uncle's always saying I'm in his family now, so I must be a hunter not a ... fishmonger. Or a cobbler."

Kevin said to Poly in a furious hiss. "A hunter! He could have murdered me, and left dozens of naked fat babies fatherless."

"You haven't a single baby," Poly whispered back, quellingly. "And the boy doesn't _want_ to be a hunter. He was trying to not murder dozens of wild ducks." If he had shot one of _those_ on accident, Dab-Dab wouldn't be swearing revenge. That duck was a sensible soul. Like most birds.

Poly scratched a bothersome itch with one never to be shod foot. "Cobbling is a useful trade, for a human to be in," she said, more or less to Kevin although she did not expect the single-minded squirrel to take much interest in the matter. "Humans are always needing shoes. Still, apprentice to a renowned doctor is a rather better position."

John had hidden himself away, closed the gate and walled his broken heart, but Poly was certain that he would be renowned again. That was a fine future for him to have an apprentice in.


End file.
